That’s right, Rawreth Parish Council meets again tomorrow night (Wednesday) Including a public question time and a hot drink and a biscuit for all visitors. AA little bird tells us you can expect Parish Councillor Chris Stanley to be talking about traffic…
Starts 7:30 in the village hall!
Have to say pretty disillusioned with the whole local democracy thing now. Does Rawreth parish council have any power to do anything about anything or are we all just kidding ourselves?
I can understand your disillusionment at the moment (and you aren’t the only one feeling that way!)
In the case of Rawreth, Parish councils don’t have much power or resources. But RPC has consistently punched above its weight in raising and reporting issues and sets an admirable example in how it engages with its own residents – one that bigger councils should learn from.
This is a good illustration as to how the electorate at large see politics ( be it local or national ) and why they feel disengaged – I believe that size matters :-
Parish>Town>District>County>Government>EU>UN (> FIFA )….the bigger the organization the less democratic / effective ( and corrupt ) it is.
Rawreth remains an effective Parish Council because it is small enough to both
communicate with and take notice of public opinion – for the common good and all that. We have a small holiday home in a Spanish village ( 1600 people )
and that too works well , they too are finance limited but a pragmatic approach
gets the important jobs done and the ‘fluffy ones’ get sacrificed to make it possible.
That’s a fair assessment Jim. It’s interesting that you mention FIFA – I can see a campaign coming to democratise FIFA – have proper elections, with people elected by the fans…
JUST TO SAY WE’RE HAVING A LITTLE PROBLEM WITH THE WEBSITE TONIGHT – we can add comments but not add any new posts. Hopefully sorted out soon…
Is this still really necessary? Presumably this is an expense to the local tax payer?
Given the proposed increase in council tax being contemplated to disguise the funding of George Osbournes economic miracle, and the fact that Rawreth is really about to become a suburb of Rayleigh due to the North of London Road development, cutting this would surely save unnecessary spend. In fact,can we just not do away with separate representation for Rawreth altogether? I cant see that there is going to be much different here fromthe rest of Rayleigh soon.
I would say that a parish council is really necessary, more than ever for a small rural area to be properly represented. And it’s not expensive – no allowances for Rawreth parish councillors, just a part-time salary fpr one clerk. You should come along to a meeting, maybe.
I would love to see each Parish ( there are a number in Rayleigh ) choose their representative to make up the Town Council – in this way the grass roots opinion would flitter up into that next level of “local” decision making and
perhaps have more credibility with the electorate.
Right now the Town Council is just an extension of the District Council and
therefore top down directionally not bottom up………
I 2nd Jim on this